Unravel 2017

Whew! I’ve just got home after a fabulous day at Unravel 2017 in Farnham – I am sure it gets better there every year! This year’s festival saw me learning about (and, er, buying) some yarn brands I hadn’t seen before, as well as seeing all my favourites.

As I have done the last couple of years, I took my trusty helper, Mr Elsie Pop, to carry my bags and offer a second opinion on the squishiness of yarns.

We started our day with a gorgeous coffee from Krema, a lovely little coffee shop around the corner from the Maltings. I LOVE Farnham, and have decided that when I finally engineer a move there, I will be a regular in this place!

Note to self: take pictures BEFORE you stir away your coffee art!

The entrance to Farnham Maltings is decorated with knitted and crocheted birds this year, displayed in trees. It was a lovely way to spend our queuing time waiting for tickets.

I loved these guys on their branch!

The rooster was Mr Elsie Pop’s favourite – this guy had attitude!

I loved the little detail of the worm in the mummy bird’s beak!

We started our day in the Great Hall. If you haven’t been to Unravel before, make sure you visit all the various rooms in the Maltings – it’s a huge venue, with loads of different nooks and crannies.

The Great Hall was fab – we walked in and I couldn’t decide what to look at first! My eye was immediately caught by this amazing Persian Tiles blanket on Jane Crowfoot‘s stand. I love Jane’s designs, and this was the first Persian Tiles I’ve seen in person – isn’t it amazing?

Isn’t the Persian Tiles blanket amazing?

The Tek-Tek stand was interesting – I have a load of t-shirt yarn at home that I never quite know what to do with. I loved the owl basket – I might need to make one!

The patterns are obviously just beautiful, but a picture can’t convey the softness of the yarns. I’m utterly obsessed with these, and will be working even more on my knitting just so that I can have the confidence to tackle a pair. I’ve got my eye on the yellow and grey stunners below!

Sock knitting goals, courtesy of CoopKnits!

Last picture of CoopKnits, I promise! Look at how beautifully simple this cowl on their stand was – I loved the effect.

It wasn’t just socks I was obsessed with at CoopKnits – look at how gorgeous this cowl is!

One more thing before we leave the Great Hall – I spotted this baa-ble hat in a neutral colourway, and now I might have to make another one. So, you know, more future WIPs.

It’s like a different hat in neutrals!

We moved out of the Great Hall to explore the rest of the festival. On the way between the rooms at Unravel, you are treated to a series of fabulous yarn art installations. I feel completely inspired to create giant wall hangings for our house now!

A fox after my own heart, doing some knitting!

Happy yarny sheep

How great would this be in a beach house? All I need is a beach house…

Exploring the other rooms I entered into a bit of a yarn-induced happy daze.

He had to tell me to grin less manically for this picture. Unravel is my happy place.

Another of my favourite stands this year was this rose gold beauty from Hill View Farm. I want to replace all of my furniture with these incredible display racks now!

Hill View Yarns at Unravel 2017

The air plants and copper piping looked so gorgeous with their muted yarn colours. And in case you’re wondering – the yarns felt unbelievable! These were contenders for the softest yarns of the festival. I was running out of cash when we happened upon their stand, so I left without some, but it’s on my list for the next time I see it.

As well as socks, shawls were everywhere this year. I’m still excited about improving my knitting, so I just couldn’t get enough of the incredible knitted shawls on display.

This beauty at Yarn Addict was incredible – I love everything about it!

I love everything about this shawl at the Yarn Addict stand! It’s huge, beautifully detailed and in perfect colours.

This huge wing-like shawl was hidden away by the roof, but I couldn’t get enough of it. It looks like it would be amazing to wear – light and airy, but big enough to wrap up in.

Isn’t this just dreamy? I love it in the neutral palette.

And as a fan of geometrics, I loved this simple triangle shawl on the Toft stand. I’ve been toying with knitting something up using this stitch pattern for a while, so it was reassuring to see how great it looks in person.

The texture the triangles create is so lovely, it’s like shifting sand.

So… “What did you buy?” I hear you ask!

Well, I have been working really hard on my knitting lately. As you know, I’m a crocheter at heart, but since I made my first knitted socks last year, I haven’t been able to put the needles down and I’ve improved. A lot. So I decided to own it, and got myself this “Knitter” necklace from Max’s World. It’s official – I can knit.

There we have it – officially a knitter!

As for the rest of the haul – it looks much more modest than I expected!

I’m impressed how restrained this looks!

I came away with:

The Unravel bag – I love a good project bag, and this year’s is a beaut!

Some sock yarn from Easy Knits. This was chosen by Mr Elsie Pop for his next pair of socks – I found it hilarious (and only slightly worrying) that he wants his next socks in the “Killer Queen” colourway.

Fyberspates Scrumptious laceweight in Primrose. I squish the Scrumptious yarns every single year, so I couldn’t leave without any this time!

The most incredible hand dyed 100% silk yarn from Willow Knits. I’ve never worked with 100% silk before – it feels like the ultimate indulgence – and the yarn came with a free pattern for a one-skein-wonder scarf! I’m SO excited to work with it.

…and my new necklace!

And now, it’s time for a gin!

Until next time,

Elsie Pop

xx

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